One of the Wyandottes laid her first egg on Wednesday and has laid two more since then! It is very, very exciting! I was out of town and my husband called me right away with the news! One other one has laid one egg too, so hopefully they will all start laying soon. The only bad thing, is we have 13 pullets and we had planned to have about 6 or 7 butchered. Now if they all start laying, I will feel terribly guilty about butchering them!

Well, now I'm very perplexed. My neighbor is very well-meaning, and grows lots of flowers and veggies/herbs. He told me yesterday that the spray he had made up (and asked me if I wanted him to spray my gardens with) was an Ortho product. He said it was pretty innocuous (made of natural ingredients and not toxic to bees etc.) I asked him the name of it, and he kept referring to it as an Ortho product....said it would keep the JBs at bay for a few weeks. He said that it was safe enough that if it got on you it was ok, and that it is sprayed on veggies and fruits too. Today he stopped by to ask how it was working so far. I told him that there were many dead JBs, but that there were some new ones too (though not anywhere near as many as usual). He said that they would chew on the leaves or buds/blooms and die in a few days etc. I looked on the Ortho website, and the only concentrate that I see there that says kills JBs as they chew and suck on the plants is Ortho Systemic Insect Killer Concentrate. 8% acephate and .5% fenbutatin oxice, whatever they are. Bottom line is under ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS it says that it is toxic to birds, mammals, fish, aquatic invertebrates, etc., and highly toxic to bees! AARGH!!! I knew it was too good to be true. Phyl

You're right Susan, I guess "shooting blanks" would be the wrong term, perhaps "misfiring" would be more appropriate :) It just seemed strange that I saw the butterfly curve its abdomen and carefully touch it to the leaf and hold it for a second, just like when they lay eggs. It did this at least 10 times while I was watching and nothing ever came out. I guess them laying eggs on asparagus is unusual but not unheard of. I only found it listed on two websites as a host plant, but one also stated it was in the carrot family. From what I read it is actually in the lily family...unless there is something else known as asparagus in the carrot family. It will be interesting the see if Christie's cats actually eat the asparagus they were found on or not. My asparagus was not in the same bed as any host plants or touching them in any way, but not too far from them. The monarchs have been strange too as far as the "misfiring" goes. The one had many misfires, but then did actually successfully lay a few eggs. Strange thing was it shoved several bees, wasps, and Japanese beetles out of the way to lay the eggs in the flower heads of common milkweed. The flower heads were also covered with ants. I snatched the eggs up right away before the ants got them. Why she chose to lay there instead of on the many stalks that had young fresh leaves and no predators on them is beyond me :) I raised them and just released them today. Their momma must be doing something right though because they were very big and beautiful!

Hi Ashley, Maybe someone from your area could tell you when to expect the Monarchs. I'd have thought they'd be there by now, but not everyone can attract them right away. Last year was my first year at butterflying and was lucky enough to get them and raised 70 cats. So far I have one in a pupa, 2 ready to go in one, and 10 munching away on milkweed. I have loads of milkweed planted for them and so maybe the female just couldn't resist stopping by here. I'll see more eventually, I'm sure. Yes, those bugs are Oleander Aphids, and I bet they look like the picture in the link I provided. I never use pesticides on any of my plants. If you do that and a butterfly would happen to come by after that, it could kill the butterfly. If it lays eggs, it would kill the caterpillars when they eat the leaves. I'm not sure how long the pesticides last, but I really don't want to use them and chance losing any Monarchs because of it. I squoosh the aphids, and some people blast them with water. Of course, I don't think that kills them but would get them off of your plant temporarily. Those things multiply like crazy, so I prefer to kill them; otherwise I'm afraid I'd end up having a million of them here. Good luck with things, and I hope the Monarchs show up there. Cathy Here is a link that might be useful: Oleander Aphids